Project Zero: The Cursed Bloodline
by FFFFFreak
Summary: Set three years after the events of FFV, Miu Hinasaki tries to move on with her life as an assistant teacher and an unexpected guardian to Ayu Ichinose, a cheerful middle-schooler who has a strong sixth sense. A mysterious disease takes hold of Miu and the two discovered a curse that somehow binds them together - a Curse tracing back to the evil lying underneath the Minakami Dam.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

Miyuki Kurezawa thought she was drowning.

But she, above anyone, should know how drowning feels like. She had swimming lessons before she can even speak. Water is her element and it had become her source of peace and distraction following her parents' divorce while she was in junior high and the home she once knew crumbled before her eyes. For the past ten years, especially after her mother died three years later after the divorce, she focused herself to be the best in what she likes to do.

Water doesn't scare her. She'd nearly drowned several times during practice and school tournaments. Not once did she feel any fear nor even pain.

She slammed her locker shut, the sound reverberating inside the shower room. It took her a moment to realize that she's the only one left. Briefly, Miyuki touched her throat where the pain is originating, a throbbing, pulsating sensation that would soon lead to something more terrifying. She'd had nights where she woke up out of breath, as if an intruder has somehow broke inside her apartment and decided to strangulate her in her sleep. She could feel hands closing around her neck, squeezing tighter and tighter no matter how much she begs…

"Kurezawa!" Her coach's deep voice echoed inside the tiled room, her thoughts vanishing at once. "It's time. Are you ready?"

Miyuki tightened her towel around her and gave her coach a decisive nod. Now's not the time to dwell on strange thoughts, especially that she has a race to win. Her coach's voice somehow brought her back to reality as she soon becomes aware of the faint cheering of the crowd outside, the shrill cries of whistles. The sound of now.

The nightmares and the pain have to wait.

"Didn't you say your brother is here today to watch?" Her coach asked as the two of them walked to the long corridor leading to the swimming pool.

At that, Miyuki brightened. "Yes. He just emailed me that he boarded the train from Fukui this morning." The thought of seeing her younger brother again slightly put her mind at ease. Maybe after the game, she can talk about the things she wouldn't, couldn't say to just anybody, not even her Coach, not even her bestfriend and roommate Rumi who's also sitting among the crowd to watch her take a shot to being a member of the Japan's National Swimming team.

"And your father?" Her coach prompted.

"Don't hold your breath on that one." Miyuki joked as they finally emerged to the cheering crowd. Immediately, she spots Rumi sitting on the front row, some of their college friends with her. They quickly erupted to a cheer as soon as they saw her, waving their colorful banners and fans with her name on it. She waved at them excitedly, but the same time searching the crowd for that familiar face.

Immediately, she caught the eyes of her brother standing on the back. Satoshi has grown a foot over the year, so it seems. Right after high school, he decided to stay with their Grandpa in his small farm at Fukui and pursue his dream to become a landscape photographer. His pictures were already published in small-time magazines in the countryside and he even earned clients from the city. Miyuki would always try to persuade him to try his luck in Tokyo or Osaka but not even their grandfather could change his mind to move to the city.

Sato's dark hair remains disheveled as ever and his skin is a healthy tan due to long hours spending under the sun. Even as a kid, he'd always been fond with hiking and the great outdoors, a total opposite of Miyuki who prefers the soothing calm of the pool water and sea.

He flashes her a small smile, eyes twinkling with boyish charm, as he gestures to the camera he's holding. No matter how tall he gets, he will always be her little brother. The only family that matters.

An invisible hand suddenly slithered across her throat and squeezed. Miyuki instinctively put her hand on her throat and felt it burning as she gulps down the cold air.

"Are you okay?" Her coach asked worriedly, noticing how pale she suddenly looked

"I just need some water." Miyuki managed to gasp out, frantically searching for her jug. Her coach quickly gave her his own water jug, seeing how she badly needs one.

Miyuki doesn't mind and gulps it down like a thirsty man lost in the desert for days. The burning sensation in her neck intensified and she almost dropped the jug. Some people are already crowding around her, their arms reaching to her, distorting into terrifying shadows coming out of her nightmares. Miyuki's vision swam and she blindly hobbles away, unaware she's stepping back into the pool.

She plunged to the cold water accompanied by screams and shouts of surprise. Miyuki could barely hear or care. Her head, her body feels weightless and a sense of numbness is slowly replacing the pain. Surrounded by the peaceful water, she is tempted to succumb to it with each passing second.

Her mind flashed an image of her brother from the stand. Sato's smiling face, his camera ready to shoot her dive at any moment.

"Satoshi…" she whispered into her mind as her hands around her neck loosened. She tried to fight off unconsciousness by opening her eyes, but as soon as she did, an image in front of a slender woman begins to form. Snow-white hair surround her, like a fast-spinning silk that covers her like a cocoon. She desperately tries to fight off the tendrils, but they her body seems to resist her. The invisible hand around her neck tightens painfully, squeezing out the life in her.

Satoshi.

She feels herself being pulled upward but she couldn't muster the energy to open her eyes to see what's happening. All she know is she's fading. Fading away.

"Come home." Suddenly, she hears her mother's voice whispering to her ear. It couldn't be. Her mother had been dead for years now. Unless...unless she herself is dying and her mother has come to comfort her in her last moments.

"Come home with me." Her mother's voice crooned. "Come home to the village."

"Miyuki!" A voice pierced through the darkness. It was her coach. No, it must be Satoshi. She tried to open her eyes but the woman's voice makes it so hard for her to stay awake.

Her name was the last thing she heard before darkness finally takes over.

She's going home to the village now


	2. Chapter I

**Chapter I**

"Go, Ayu-neechan!"

"Hit a homerun!"

"Yeah, show 'em!"

Ayu adjusted her grip on the bat, breathing in the fresh autumn morning air. The 11-year-old pitcher on the mound gave a subtle shake of his head, indicating he has a play in mind. Despite herself, Ayu smiled. Shuichi is finally learning to think as a pitcher.

Today is a perfect day to play baseball. The sun is up, the sky is clear and blue and littered with some occasional drifting clouds. She can feel the a slight stirring of wind in the air, possibly made stronger by the the cheers from the kids outside the diamond.

"Bring it on!" Ayu called at Shuichi who promptly winds up. She tightens the grip on her bat and feels the blood rushing to her ears, the familiar pound of her heart whenever she steps up to the batter's plate.

Ayu's life has changed so much for the past few years but she can count on baseball to never change. She'd been a regular at the Little League, played sandlot baseball with the boys in the neighborhood a lot and got into her middle school's team. her grandmother, the person who raised her, died on her sleep on her final year at elementary. She was very nearly sent back to distant relatives at the province, but she went to stay with a close family friend instead. Now on her first year at Ichinose Middle School, she, along with two other girls from school, found herself in a small club only a few people in the school know it existed. All because she's beginning to see things other people couldn't see. Ayu knows that if it weren't for Miu and her friends, she wouldn't know how to handle this newly-awakened gift.

Shuichi throws the ball so hard he nearly flipped himself over the mound. By the ball's trajectory, Ayu's instinct picked up its path and she swung the bat without thinking. The tremor shook her arms but she easily resisted the force with just the right amount of strength. Ayu opens her eyes just in time to see it sailing across the wire fence.

The crowd broke into a wild cheer. Ayu jogged to all the base, smiling at Shuichi is torn between admiring her homerun and being annoyed at how she easily hit that.

"Nice pitch," she greets him when he and his teammates returned to the shed to change their gear.

"But you turned it into a homerun." He replies grumpily.

"Hey, I'm two years older than you and I'm a member of our school's softball team. Everyone is expecting me to hit that but I didn't plan it to be a homerun. Honest!"

"That makes it even worse." Shuichi groans, but suddenly perks up as if remembering something. "Hey, Ayu-nee, we'll have a game next week against the big kids from my brother's school. Could you join us? I want to show my brother that we can already kick their asses in the field."

"No can do. I'll be spending my summer break with some relatives at Seiguku." Ayu said as she removes her helmet and gloves.

"A whole break? Why that long?" One of the boys asked.

"It's been awhile since I visit my mom after my grandma died. Our relatives there invited me to stay over." Ayu replies "To be honest, I really don't know them or maybe my memory's not that good. There are things I can't remember as a kid but going there might make me remember."

"Still, living in the countryside that long?" Shuichi makes a face. "Sounds like a punishment."

Ayu jokingly brushes the top of his head. "Not in my shoes, Shuichi-kun." She checks her watch and almost doubles over how late she'll be for the last train if she doesn't get back in house in time. "I'll better go. I still haven't finished my packing and I'll be leaving in two hours!"

The boys chuckled as Ayu scrambles to get her things in her typical Ayu fashion. After waving them goodbye, she begins to head back home, enjoying the sweet autumn breeze drying the sweat off her shirt. Passing by the third block of their quiet neighborhood, a thought struck her into a skidding halt. "Almost forgot," she mumbles to herself before retracing her steps.

It took only a few minutes to reach the gate to the town's only Shinto Temple, built on a hill at the Itsukushima's outskirts. Legends said that a hundred years ago, a tsunami from a nearby sea had flooded most of the region, but those who fled on top of this hill were miraculously saved. They were rescued about six months later, all four families became the pillar of the modern town's populace. Ever since then, this place was treated as a sacred ground and the Temple has stood there for hundreds of years, as old as the trees protecting it.

The Temple can be reached by climbing a flight of stairs of one hundred steps. Ayu used to hate climbing every week to visit Kaoru but she grew used to the idea of this as an exercise to improve her stamina. Still, for an ordinary person, climbing it is a chore and she couldn't imagine herself as Kaoru who lives here and has to take on the steps everyday!

Ayu is about to shake her legs off to prepare for climbing when she sensed a presence behind her. As if something is breathing down her neck. She instinctively stepped forward without turning back. Ever since her sixth sense has awakened nearly a year ago, she's more or less used to unexplainable things happening around her, even under broad daylight. Still, she has to fight off the urge to run and cry like a little girl everytime. No, Ayu reminded herself. I shouldn't be scared. That will make it easier for them to get to me.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Count 1 to 10. Sing the Panchi Man opening song to herself. Act calm. Just as Miu-nee taught her.

Time passes and she can sense the presence slowly dissolving away, slithering into some unimaginable place it came from. Still, Ayu has to make sure and she stayed on that spot for a few more seconds, concentrating on the mental barrier she placed around her mind.

"Ayu." A voice startled her awake. It took a while before Ayu to realize that the voice belongs to her friend, Kaoru. With an effort, she broke free from her concentration like a swimmer breaking out to the surface after diving into the dark depths of the ocean.

Once she opened her eyes, Kaoru's face looms in front of her, her usually sharp eyes looking down at her in concern. She is holding Ayu's shoulder in a firm but gentle grip. Beside Kaoru is her younger sister Aoi who is staring at Ayu curiously. It seems like she and Kaoru went grocery shopping earlier this morning, looking at the plastic bags they are carrying.

"Are you okay?" Kaoru's face, which had been described by their classmates as "scary" with her short, cropped hair framing her long, sharp face, is full of worry. The eyes behind her wire-rimmed eyeglasses study her carefully.

Ayu nods and gives her an assuring smile. "Nothing I can handle." Nothing like the past encounters she had, she silently added.

"Aoi said she she spotted a large butterfly hovering behind you. Seems like a spirit." She turned to her sister. "Did you see where it go? Or it just flew away?" For a normal person, this conversation sounds crazy but even the hard skeptical Kaoru eventually came to believe her younger sister's strange gift, and she knew better not to listen to her.

"It's gone now." Aoi replied simply before cheerfully bounding the stairs. After a few steps, she turns back to Ayu as if remembering something. "Onee-chan, the butterfly said not to go."

"What does that mean?" Kaoru demanded to her sister.

Aoi shrugged before resuming her ascent, leaving the two of them alone.

"Honestly, it's so frustrating to deal with her and her visions sometimes." Kaoru heaved a sigh. "Do you have any idea of what she's talking about?"

Ayu shrugged. "No clue either."

"Are you sure? She did mention a butterfly…"

"I've been seeing them a lot though." Ayu thought for a moment. "Sometimes...in my dreams. They don't do anything special. They just circle around me and fly away when I try to touch them."

"You seem to be uninterested with that. Does that alarm you in anyway?" Kaoru observed, rolling her eyes at her. "You know, you're beginning to act like Miyu. Is that a price of just having a sixth sense or what?"

Ayu just smiled sadly. "Maybe it is. Sometimes the things you see just leave you with more questions than answers and you'll just have to be okay with that."

Kaoru just gave her a strange look before shaking her head, ending that part of the conversation. "So what brings you here? I thought you left yesterday."

Ayu hesitates before reaching down to her bag. "I thought I should leave this to you." She pulls out a worn-out box out of her box, roughly the size of her palm. "I-I lied." Ayu falters, avoiding Kaoru's sharp gaze.

"What are you talking about?"

"Remember, last week before Miyu left, I told you that the Shadow Man was defeated because of the exorcism ritual that you did." Ayu mustered all her courage to look at Kaoru straight in the eye. "It was me. I trapped the spirit with this."

Kaoru silently accepts the box, her face unreadable as she pulls out the an old camera that surprisingly weighs heavier than it looks. "This is-"

"One of the modern prototypes of the Camera Obscura," Ayu finished for her. "You see, it may look broken and useless but when we're inside the Grey, it can capture the spirits or even push them away, just like the old models can from the books we read."

Ayu watched as Kaoru held up the Camera, its brass knobs glinting dully into the afternoon light. She still couldn't wrap her head around the idea that the thing has the power to exorcise wandering souls trapped in this world. "Where did you get this?"

"From Miu-nee. It was given to her by the woman who raised her. She-she is a photographer living in a city not far from Tokyo."

Kaoru positioned the camera in a way that she's about to take Ayu's photo. The reflection of a somber, pony-tailed girl with short bangs and two long strands of red highlights hanging loosely in front of each of her ear stared back at her.

"Sorry because I lied." Ayu goes on, stepping forward. "It doesn't mean that I trust you. Just that...if I told you about the camera, you might take it away. I'm not sure how Miu-nee would feel about that."

Kaoru put the camera back to the box and fixed Ayu a stern gaze. "You're right to think we're taking it away from you. This thing is dangerous. You know that, right?"

"I know. Miu-nee said that I should only used it when I'm in danger. But the longer I have it…"

"The more it becomes dangerous to you."

Before Ayu could respond, they both heard a faint whistle coming from Ayu's pocket. "This must be Miu-nee. I have to leave in less than an hour." She muttered as she reaches for her phone.

"When will you be back?" Kaoru asked.

"Maybe a week before the school opening ceremony." Ayu smiles in relief. She'd been afraid Kaoru will be upset with her but looks like Kaoru is more intent to keep than camera than be angry with her.

"Good. We can discuss with how we're going to deal with you when you return."

Ayu blanched. After spending nearly a year at the Club, meaning the club she, Kaoru and their friend Miyu were in, she knows by now that it couldn't be anything good. Being part of the club itself isn't anything good.

Still, it's her fault for hiding it in the first place. She'll just have to deal with it when she returns.

"You take care, okay?" Kaoru asked suddenly just when Ayu is about to run off home.

Ayu turned back to her for the last time and gave her a big wave. "I will! You too. See you around."

Reviews are appreciated :) Thanks~


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter II**

"Everything set?" Miu Hinasaki asked her passenger.

She parked the car a few meters away from the entrance of the train station, avoiding traffic as much as possible. Well, people in general. She only got her license two months ago after all and she still feels a little squeamish on the road.

Ayu zipped her bag close and flattened it down to her lap. "Yeah. I don't think I've forgotten anything."

Miu gave her adoptive sister a big smile. She recalled when she first met Ayu after she and her grandma settled on the house opposite her apartment. She's a shy little girl then, easily scared with strangers and big dogs, but now she's about to have her first countryside trip alone.

"Have fun and don't forget to call when you get there, okay?"

Ayu returned her smile. "I will! Are you going to the doctor's today for your check-up?"

"Yeah. It's been weeks. None of my medicines are working." Miu experimentally craned her neck from side to side. It doesn't hurt now but there are just some days where she felt it constricting and she finds it difficult to swallow her food or even breath. "But hey, I might already be better when you get back so don't worry." She assured the younger girl.

Ayu stared worriedly at Miu, particularly her neck. She opens her mouth to say something, but she quickly looks away. "Miu-nee, maybe you should go to the Temple. Oda-san might know something about that."

Neither of them have to say it. The two of them who have so much experience dealing with the darkest nightmares which continue to exist that a large portion of the world may never know. Ayu, for the past year, had even found herself in a club that deals with these happenings. Though she can always trust Miu, she just cannot possibly find any words how to explain these to her without worrying her.

But Miu only smiled cheerfully. "It couldn't be that bad. At any rate, I might talk to Oda-san if I don't feel better. Just do me a favor and go have fun with your cousins at Seiguku, okay?"

Ayu nodded at last, strapping her bag to her back. "You take care, Miu-nee."

Miu helped her carry a larger bag from the car's trunk. Though she insisted accompanying Ayu to the entrance, Ayu assured her it's fine and she'll be carrying the luggage for the rest of the trip. Might as well get used to carrying it.

After the two girls say their goodbyes, Ayu scurried off to the entrance while Miu stayed a few minutes to watch her disappear inside. Her fingers drummed the wheel incessantly, feeling a strange throb of unease in her belly. When Ayu informed her of the call she got from her relatives in Seiguku months ago, she thought it couldn't be anything bad. They're family, after all. In fact she's surprised none of her relatives made any move to take Ayu away when her grandmother died two summers ago. Something she secretly feels grateful for, as over the years, she had grown fond of the girl who is now practically a little sister to her. Still, what they did...or didn't do for that matter, remains a mystery to her.

So why did they want to see Ayu now?

Miu knows she should listen to her instinct but she couldn't say no to Ayu right there, especially after realizing that she can visit her mother while there. Ayu's mother has been living in a mental institution in Shizuku, near Seiguku, for years now and Ayu barely gets any chance to visit her lately these days.

Miu should know. She lost her mother as well after all, though not in a way Ayu's mother had been. She felt the familiar painful twist on her chest as she remembered her mother again, the last time she saw her beautiful face under the warm glow of the sunset. She shakes her head from those depressing thoughts and started off the engine. She still has her whole life ahead of her, a future. And now that Ayu is counting on her, she should do her best and not let her down.

As she drove off to the clinic, she thought of surprising a dear old friend after her check-up. She'd taken the leave off from work and she's free for the rest of the day.

She just hopes Rei-san would be at home when she gets there.

The Kurosawa House hasn't changed at all when Miu stopped the car in front of its gate. Sure the walls looked newly-painted and Rei-san had a new gate and doorbell installed, but on the outside, it's still the same house Miu spent most of her childhood years in. After her mother left her, she couldn't' say she had a happy childhood but living here with Rei-san made it at least bearable.

Miu checked herself in the mirror, making sure to straighten her dark hair and flatten out the wrinkled parts of her clothes with her hand. Just as she glanced at the rear view mirror, she caught the faint mark on her pale neck, a pinkish bruise that gets more visible each day. At first she thought it's some kind of rash but it isn't itchy and it doesn't sting when she tried to wash it with water. The only discomfort she felt after its appearance is the slight burning feeling around her throat, occurring at most random times. But lately these days, the pain grows to the point that she felt an imaginary circlet is slowly strangling her, especially while she's asleep. The only thing the doctors advised her is to take painkillers and get as much rest as she can.

She adjusted her choker to hide the bruise, hoping Rei-san would be too preoccupied with the fact that she's here to notice it.

After a few more seconds of composing herself, she climbed out of the car and rang the doorbell. Today is Saturday and there's a good chance that she's staying home for the weekend but it could also be possible that she's in the middle of an assignment right now. Her guardian after all makes it a point to get away from the house whenever she can.

A few more minutes later and she hit the doorbell once again. Could she be sleeping in?

"Ah, is that really you, Miku-chan?" An old lady passing by suddenly stopped in front of her, a dog leash on her hand. Miu unconsciously backed away to the gate. The lady is somehow familiar, but she couldn't pinpoint her in her memories, with some forcibly shoved away to the back of her mind.

The lady walked rapidly towards her, her face dimming a little. "Oh forgive me, I thought you're someone I know. She used to live here with Kurosawa-san. A shy young lady with gentle manners. I was rather fond of her."

Miu knew who she meant and accepted her apology with a smile. She does resemble her mom a lot in appearance and mannerism.

"Are you looking for Kurosawa-san by any chance?" The old lady inquired. When Miu nodded, she shakes her head ruefully. "I'm afraid she left for an overseas assignment. She said she'll come back by the end of this month. Look how her mails have piled up." She gestured at the mailbox pinned against the wall beside her gate, loaded with envelopes and stacks of magazines. _I guess I was too busy being nervous to notice,_ she thought with dismay.

But deep inside, Miu is torn between relieved and upset. Driving here was almost exhausting, what with her own conflicting thoughts and worries. She realized she isn't ready to tell Rei-san about what happened to her mother in that Mountain. Still, she wished she could see her. She missed Rei-san dearly. If there's one thing that horrible experience taught her, it's that she hasn't thanked enough the people who love and care for her despite her fixation in finding what happened to her mother.

"Then could you tell her that I dropped by?" Miu asked the old lady.

"Sure, what's your name?"

Miu hesitated. "Miu. She'll know me by then."

The lady peered at her closely. "Excuse me for my strange question but are you...do you know a young lady named Miku Hinasaki? She used to work as Kurosawa-san's assistant way back."

"Uh…"

"You look like her. Are you...related to her in some way?"

Miu's tongue felt heavy in her mouth and she can only look at the lady with pleading eyes. She can always lie, but most people can tell if she's lying or not. She could tell the truth, that she is Miku's daughter, but that could raise more questions like where her mother is, or who her father is. Questions she isn't prepared to answer just yet, not to this lady...not even to Rei-san.

The lady stopped herself and smiled warmly at her in understanding. "I'm sorry. Forgive me.I won't ever ask again. I'm sorry you have to find out this way after coming so far. The least I can do is invite you over some tea?"

"Thank you, but there is no need-"

"Nonsense, any friend of Kurosawa-san is welcome to my house. She and Miku-chan are a big help when times were rough. Besides," she gives Miu a knowing look. "I'm currently looking over her lovely cat and her kittens for the meantime. Do you want to check up on them?"

Ruri! Miu is sorely tempted to go right there. She missed the old cat so much!

"I promise I won't ask any questions," the old lady persisted, taking her by the hand. "My name is Shiba, by the way. It's wonderful to meet you, Miu-san."


End file.
